"If all of mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
-John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1869

What really gets me is that one particular church member. Usually they’re young. They start out in middle school or high school. They attend the youth group every Sunday night. You see them in church every Sunday morning. These are the people that always bright and fucking chipper. They are the ones that will ask you in their best feigned sincerity voice “How was your week? How is school going? Did you get that job that you applied for?” The run you through the usual gauntlet of inane questions to make it seem like they are interested in you. Watch these people outside of the church environment. See how they really treat “the least of these.” Once they get to about college age or have just graduated the hypocrisy gets worse. They will have a conniption fit if you have a beer with dinner on a mission trip, but will go back to their dorm the next week and get plastered with the frat or sorority du jour and then post the pictures on their MySpace page. These are the same people that will say “You shouldn’t do anything in your private life that you wouldn’t do on a mission trip. Like that’s sound advice. There’s got to be a list as long as my arm of things that I wouldn’t do on a mission trip, but that I would do every day. Pay my bills for one. Give my dog a bath for another. But those are inane examples. It would generally be frowned upon to have sex with your wife on a mission trip, but I’ll give it to the missus every day of the week back home.

The problem with these mission trips is that they try to take you out of your everyday, routine life and place you in an environment that is different from the normal so that you can focus on God and Jesus and being a Christian. What they really need to do is the exact opposite. They need to come into your everyday life and work on getting you to focus on all of those things while dealing with the stack of work on your desk, the guy at the drive –through complaining that he ordered the burger with onions and without mayo, the kids screaming constantly at home. That’s where these mission trips need to focus. Mission to the Middle of Your Life. Once the artificial high from your trip to repair broken houses and broken lives in Podunksville, Wherever wears off, you are still left with your broken life. Your broken house. Your broken soul.